Disclosure and Barring Service

The Disclosure and Barring Service is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office of the United Kingdom. The DBS enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that involving children or vulnerable adults, and provides wider access to criminal record information through its disclosure service for England and Wales.The DBS was formed in 2012 by merging the functions of the Criminal Records Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. DBS started operating on 1 December 2012. It operates from Liverpool and Darlington. Its equivalent agencies are Disclosure Scotland in Scotland and Access Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland.It is a legal requirement in the UK for regulated activity employers to refer safeguarding concerns to the DBS. It is a criminal offence for anyone barred by the DBS to work or apply to work in the sector from which they are barred. It is also illegal for an employer to knowingly employ a barred person in the sector from which they are barred.